In This Issue: Ensuring High-Quality Care

Helping Veterans live life to its fullest
One of VA's most important research priorities is helping translate its research into real-world treatments and care for Veterans, so that their quality of life is the best that it can be. There are many instances where VA research has led to new treatments and improvements in care not only for Veterans, but also for patients in the private sector.
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New Initiatives | Announcements

VA launches new research center of excellence for Veteran caregivers
In September 2018, VA announced that it will fund a new center of excellence for caregiver research. The center is named for Senator Elizabeth Dole—honoring the work she has done to support the 5.5 million military and Veteran caregivers in the U.S. The new center will allow VA to expand its research on Veteran caregivers, and the challenges they and their families face.
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New clinical trial looks at home use of fecal transplants to prevent C. difficile
VA researchers at the Minneapolis VA Health Care System are beginning a new clinical trial to assess the effectiveness of home use of fecal microbiota therapy (FMT) to prevent recurrence of Clostridium difficile infections. The study is called Microbiota or Placebo after Antimicrobial Therapy for Recurrent C. difficile at Home. MATCH will assess the effectiveness of FMT delivered via an oral capsule, rather than by colonoscopy.
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A Chat with Our Experts

Seeking new ways to alert physicians to Veteran suicide risk
Dr. Hal Wortzel is a neuropsychiatrist at the VA Rocky Mountain Mental Illness Research and Education Clinical Center in Denver. He serves as director of neuropsychiatric consultation services and codirector of the VA Suicide Risk Management Consultation Program. VARQU spoke with Wortzel about his research into suicide prevention, and more specifically, his thoughts on using a suicide-specific diagnosis code in Veterans' medical records.
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Spotlight on Career Development Awardees

Caring for prostate cancer survivors
Dr. Ted Skolarus is a urologic oncologist—a physician who treats cancer of the urinary tract and male reproductive system. He is also an investigator at VA Ann Arbor Health Care System in Michigan. His research is focused on survivorship care for men who have undergone treatment for prostate cancer. While survivors need to be monitored by their providers for cancer recurrence, there are also a number of quality-of-life issues that should be assessed by the medical team.
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Noteworthy Publications

Resilience may protect against the effects of poor sleep
In a study published in Military Psychology, Dr. Susan Nicole Hastings and colleagues assessed sleep and resiliency in a group of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans. Hastings, who is an investigator at the Durham VA Medical Center in North Carolina, and her team wanted to examine the relationship between poor sleep and psychological distress in otherwise healthy Veterans.
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Coaching healthy behaviors in Veterans at risk for heart disease
In a study published in the Journal of General Internal Medicine, VA investigators examined the effectiveness of two interventions to help patients reduce their risk for heart disease. They found that an online health risk assessment was more effective at motivating Veterans to address modifiable risk factors like smoking, when combined with telephone health coaching.
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Veteran profiles for VA homeless program use
VA researchers analyzed the records of over 61,000 homeless Veterans to find out which homeless assistance programs they used, how often they accessed services, and for what length of time. The team identified five different Veteran usage profiles that, they say, can inform future research into VA homeless assistance programs.
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